Ziva & the Three Ts
by flootzavut
Summary: Written for the McRomeo challenge on NFA. Ziva's new boyfriend makes both Tim and Tony jealous. Illegitimate offspring of a typo and a plot bunny - those to blame know who they are :p ;) TBC. Due October 30th
1. Chapter 1

**_TONY_**

"Who's that?" asked Tony.

The guy kissing Ziva goodbye at the lift looked strangely... average to be dating a woman like Ziva. They were used to her being courted by rather more exotic men, Mossad assassins, CIA operatives - at least when it came to any relationship that might actually make it onto the Navy Yard. Not that he and McGee ever discussed Ziva's love life in any but the most general terms. They had a tacit agreement: McGee didn't needle Tony about how both his usually effective brand of charm and his backup method of seduction by teasing always seemed to backfire when it came to her, and Tony didn't draw attention to the fact McGee still blushed a little every time she paid him a compliment.

McGee studied the interloper. "I don't know." He didn't sound any more pleased than Tony felt.

To Tony's well trained eye, the man Ziva was still kissing (not that he was in any way jealous, of course, it just wasn't the time or the place) looked decidedly ordinary. Even, if he was being harsh, a little geeky. Not, of course, that there was anything wrong with geeks. Tony was very fond of McGee, and McGee was the geek's geek. But it didn't seem right that a geek would get to kiss Ziva like that, or that he would, now that they had finally stopped kissing, manage to make Ziva David (ex-Mossad ninja assassin and professional badass) blush by simply whispering something in her ear. That... well, that really didn't seem fair. No, wrong word. If it was unfair, then that implied that Tony cared that she was with a geeky guy instead of, say, some tall suave Italian-American stud. To pick an entirely random example. And he definitely didn't. But it certainly didn't seem normal.

When she finally strode over to them, there was a bounce in her step he hadn't seen for quite some time. _Hmmm_. Well, she was happy. And he was, he assured himself, definitely happy for her about that.


	2. Chapter 2

**_MCGEE_**

"Hi, Ziva."

McGee was too polite to pepper her with questions about the man she'd arrived with, though he wanted to quite a lot. The man had looked vaguely familiar, and Tim was trying to figure out if it was because he'd been part of the cyber team a few years back at the same time as trying to ignore the way his heart sank at the idea of her with another guy.

Fortunately, and predictably, DiNozzo was ready to step into the breach.

"New boyfriend?"

Ziva rolled her eyes, but Tim couldn't help noticing the small smile that tugged at the corner of her mouth.

"Not that it is any of your business, Tony, but Tom is a very nice man whom I _happen_ to be dating. He is more than a friend, but he is definitely _not_ a boy."

Tony visibly flinched at her insinuation. The fact that Tony got agitated every time Ziva got remotely serious with any man was one of those things Tim pretended not to notice. Noticing would be a very bad move in terms of self preservation.

"So, Zee-vah, he's not just a boy toy, huh? Is he man enough for our ninja, though? He looked kind of like a geek to me."

Tim closed his eyes briefly. This was just a continuation of the normal Tony-Ziva warfare, and he should've been used to it by now, but he had long since learned to fear the collateral damage that tended to occur when Tony crossed the line. And if he hadn't already crossed it (Tim really wasn't sure exactly how Ziva would respond to accusations that her date was a geek), he was surely only moments away from doing so.

"He is _not_ a geek. He is a highly intelligent man who works in the cyber crime division. He has degrees from MIT and Princeton, and is fluent in several languages."

Tony glanced over at Tim and shook his head. "He sounds more of a geek than McGeek. And being a geek is in the McGenome. I don't think our pet Israeli even knows what a geek is, McGee."

Tim didn't respond. Part of him was feeling rather pleased that Ziva was defending a man with multiple degrees who worked in cyber crime as "not a geek" - on the other hand, it was beyond frustrating that said man had succeeded where Tim had not. He'd never been quite brave enough to cross the line, and he wasn't especially keen on inciting Gibbs' wrath for breaking one of The Rules either, but still. It felt painfully like he'd missed a chance somewhere along the way. He'd long since consoled himself that Ziva'd never go for a geek like him, and it was better not to risk their friendship. If he had to be proven wrong, this was not the way he would've chosen.

"If a geek is a clever man who has interesting things to say, then I am happy to be dating a geek. You are just envious because _I_ have a date tonight and _you_ do not."

DiNozzo laughed sarcastically. "Yeah, I bet he's fascinating. You know how much I _love_ dating nerds. Gonna take you to a computer show, is he?"

Ziva tilted her chin up in a defiant way that made Tim wonder just what was coming. "He is taking me to see a film by Kawasaki."

He cringed to himself. The way Ziva said that name made it sound like it was a big deal, and movies... well, they were Tony's thing. That had to hurt.

Tony just looked at her for a long moment, his expression not so much a blank as a weird mixture of emotions that averaged out to nothing. "Is it possible you mean Kurosawa?"

She made an impatient gesture with her hand. "Does it matter?"

"Well, my little pomegranate, one of them makes really great movies, the other one makes motorbikes. If you're going to see a movie by Kawasaki, you might be a bit disappointed..."

Tony was trying to sound flippant, but there was a note of strain in his voice. Yes, that had definitely hit him where he lived, and McGee could at least appreciate the irony; a computer geek who was also a film buff? If Ziva had been purposely trying to make them both jealous, she could hardly have done better.

"What's his name?" Tim managed.

She rewarded his question with one of those smiles that made him ache to the pit of his stomach. "Tom. Tom DiMatteo."

He nodded and plastered on a smile of his own.

"Well. I am going to see Abby, who will be happy for me instead of behaving like a rat."

"I think you mean brat."

Tim had been thinking the same thing, but the glare Tony got made him glad he'd managed to resist the urge to correct her. "I hope you have a good time," he blurted out, and she nodded at him with a little grin before striding off to the elevator.

DiNozzo watched her go, then span around. "OK, Probie-san, background check on the Kurosawa fan. She may be able to smell a gun at fifty yards, but her taste in men sucks."

"You all right, Tony?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, McGee. Just peachy." He clearly wasn't fine. He tapped he file on Tim's desk. "So. How about I do this paperwork for you and you get on with the computer magic?"

DiNozzo volunteering to do paperwork? Never a good sign. "Way ahead of you, Tony. So far he seems legit."

Tony frowned, and they exchanged an understanding look. "Keep looking, Tim. Keep looking."

Tim nodded, reassuring himself he was doing this for Ziva... or at least, mostly for her. Well, partly for her.

Or at least, it gave him something to do besides think about her kissing another geek.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: **I left something out of chapter two the first time I posted this, so if you're reading this having already read chapter two, I recommend going back and re-reading it quickly so you benefit from me having corrected my mistake...

* * *

**_TONY_**

_"What's his name?"_

_"Tom. Tom DiMatteo."_

Of course, he just had to be Italian. And a film buff. Because that's how things always worked out for Tony.

It was 3am and he was still trying to convince himself this didn't really bother him, that Ziva having a boyfriend was no big deal, and that this was just the same as any other relationship she'd had and that really, it wasn't even a little deal, not a problem, no worries, and Tony was fine and dandy with things exactly the way they were.

The real issue was that he'd never been fine with her dating... well, anyone, really. This _was_ just the same as her being in any other relationship, in that the very idea of it made Tony want to punch something, someone, put a few bullet holes in the walls or in someone's face. It was highly unprofessional, but that hadn't stopped him feeling this way before and it seemed unlikely it was going to stop him this time, either.

Gibbs would have a fit if he knew... Tony allowed himself a wry grin. Well, in the first place Gibbs already knew, no doubt. It was always safest to work on the principle that Gibbs knew everything until proven otherwise. And for seconds, the idea of Gibbs having a fit was pretty outlandish. If he knew just how much this was eating at his senior agent, though - if he knew that Tony and McGee had been actively looking for dirt on the guy. They might be able to reassure each other that they were doing it for her own good, and a mutual willingness to pretend that was all there was to it was very comforting, but somehow Tony didn't think that Gibbs would buy into that quite so easily.

So far, Tim had come up with absolutely nothing suspicious, and the calls Tony had made in between finishing up McGee's paperwork had been equally fruitless. They'd told each other that that in itself was suspicious, that no one could be quite this squeaky clean, that there must be something there if they dug far enough, but Tony had a sinking feeling that this Tom was exactly what he seemed: a totally decent, somewhat geeky guy with fairly impressive taste in movies. If they didn't start hitting pay dirt soon, they'd have to start telling each other that this was a really good thing and that they were pleased for Ziva that she'd found someone to go out with who wasn't a murder suspect or a rogue agent or pathological liar. That was a conversation he suspected Tim was looking forward to just as little as he was.

He turned over in bed, punched his pillow a few times, and took a swig from the whiskey he'd poured out for this exact eventuality. He was going to sleep if it killed him (hey, he was free to be as melodramatic as he liked in the privacy of his own head, thank you very much) and tomorrow he'd start on the whole acceptance thing. Or maybe they'd find a skeleton in Tom's closet. He tried not to think too hard about which of those scenarios appealed to him the most.

Taking another gulp of whiskey, he buried his head in the pillow. Briefly he considered the possibility of suffocating in goose down; then told himself to grow a pair.

_If I'm sleep deprived, Gibbs will kill me_. Maybe terror would be an effective way of forcing himself to get some sleep. He'd tried counting sheep, but the sheep had all been wearing little placards reading "Rule 12"... maybe he should take the hint, he thought, and started counting Gibbs' rules instead. It proved surprisingly effective, and he was asleep before he got out of the teens.


End file.
